A construction worker was tearing down a wall at a centuries-old Beaux Arts convention center in Oakland, California, on March 9 when he made a gruesome discovery: a mummified corpse believed to be that of a “terminal” male decay,” said a police spokeswoman.
Who he was and how he got there was a mystery, but it was immediately clear he had been there a long time, possibly years, authorities said. Notably, a spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office said his remains were “better preserved inside the wall than if they had been out in the elements.”
In fact, “they were mummified,” said the spokesman, Lt. Ray Kelly.
The discovery came as the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center underwent a $64.5 million renovation that the Oakland City Council approved in 2019. The 215,000-square-foot hall, which opened in 1914 near the south shore of Lake Merritt as the Oakland Civic Auditorium, has hosted Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and concerts by Elvis Presley, James Brown, Bob Marley and the Grateful Dead. It closed in 2005.
A decade ago, the center was the scene of a violent confrontation between police and members of the Occupy movement, in which three officers were injured and around 200 protesters arrested.
When authorities attempted to determine who the man was and how he was pinned in an interior wall of the convention center, they found there were no obvious signs of trauma.
An autopsy was ordered. In the end, a serial number on a metal plate in the man’s ankle solved the mystery. They compared the number to records from a nearby hospital and found a match in Joseph Mejica, who was known to frequent Oakland homeless camps and who had been reported missing in August 2020, a month before his 41st birthday .
DNA testing confirmed the body was that of Mr Mejica, Lieutenant Kelly said Tuesday.
A serial number on a tag surgically implanted in one of the man’s ankles led authorities to identify him as Mr Mejica
Authorities said they didn’t know how long Mr Mejica was inside the wall, but it was long enough for his body to be effectively mummified.
“He was there a long time,” said Sgt. Erik Bordi of the Alameda County Coroner’s Office. “It’s falling apart. It dries up. The fluids dry up and it just becomes mummified.”
A cause of death was not immediately determined pending the result of toxicology tests, Sergeant Bordi said, adding that officials do not suspect foul play.
Authorities said Mr Mejica was last seen around 8 p.m. on August 22, 2020 near the corner of Sixth Street and Fallon Street in Oakland, less than a 10-minute walk from the convention center. He was wearing a black T-shirt, blue jeans and black shoes. The name “Amy” was tattooed on the left side of his chest and “Joe” was tattooed on his upper arm.
His family offered a $5,000 reward. Relatives could not be reached on Tuesday.
Mr Mejica’s mother told law enforcement officials that Mr Mejica occasionally attempted to steal copper wire from construction sites to sell, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. She added that she lost contact with him in the months leading up to his disappearance and that she called the Oakland Police Department after learning an unidentified body had been found.
Lieutenant Kelly said on Tuesday it was possible Mr Mejica was living or taking refuge in the convention center “when he died for whatever reason”, possibly after “getting stuck or trying to pull something out of the wall”.
“He was definitely in a place he shouldn’t have been,” he said.
Susan C. Beachy contributed to the research.